Dining in Lima
The visitor can enjoy a culinary adventure from the award-winning Peruvian cuisine where you can feel in each dish the unique flavors Peru. The success of the traditional Peruvian cuisine comes from those domestic recipes that have been passed from generation to generation and the use of the best ingredients that are unique in Peru such as the red onion, garlic dressing and aji panca. Each region, identifies itself with a typical cooking due its geography that influences the use of local ingredients, offering a great variety of dishes which makes the Peruvian cuisine so diverse. In addition we have to point out the immigration influence who came to Peru and merged with our native food. For example, we have the Africans from Angola who came to work in the cotton plantations and due to their influences in food we have the famous kebabs, chanfainita and picarones. One of our famous local desserts is the “Purple Mazamorra" made of purple corn. The Chinese immigration took place due to the need of hand labor after the Independence of Perú. The Peruvian government bought Chinese coolies from Canton sailing from Macao and arriving in Peru at the end of the eighteenth century to work in the farms of the northern part to Pacasmayo and south up to Cañete. They came with their traditional cuisine but the ingredients and species obliged their kitchen to adapt to what they found in Peru. This gave way to start their own restaurants known as “Chifa". This Chinese cuisine is unique in the world.
The Japanese arrived to Peru in the late 19 th century and early 20th century. The Nikkei´s found in the coast the ingredients for their traditional cuisine as Peru has a wide variety of the best quality of fish and seafood. They adopt the traditional peruvian ceviche and marinated it for three minutes which is the way it is consumed nowadays.
The Spaniards introduced to our cuisine the cooking and recipes for dishes made from poultry, meat and vegetables. With them came the Moorish Arab housewives who were in charge to develop these recipes brought from Europe and adapt them to the customs of each region.
The potato and corn are the major contribution of the Peruvian cuisine to the world and the base of many cuisines of the world and saving Europe from famine.
The Peruvian ceviche comes from the time of the Mochica´s a Pre-inca culture who fished in the caballito de totora ( a kind of boat made of a local straw fiber) off the coast of Lambayeque. They marinated the fish with maracuya (a peruvian fruit) and ate it.
All this influence has made the Peruvian cuisine as one of the most demanding of the world. This year, we have received the WORLD TRAVEL AWARD as best cuisine destination in the world, this merit is for all Peruvians that somehow work together to maintain and respect the recipes and traditional ingredients. The result of this cuisine boom, has been the generation of many new restaurants where famous Chefs of the Peruvian cuisine are constantly creating mergers with different ingredients from various regions of Peru, achieving many of them the internationalization in many reknown capitals of the world. We are sure your culinary adventure will be unforgettable and will be able to feel the many flavors Peru has to offer. Following is a list with the different alternatives of the Peruvian cuisine.
Bon Appetit !